Seaside View

It's not the first time I've blogged on Rabiang Talay restaurant, but it was another beautiful day, so worth posting some pictures. 

Fortunately, you can't catch the scent of the leather tanneries just up the road.

My only complaint was that the ladle did not fit into the fire bowl-thing - so you can never get the last few ounces of soup.  It's the same everywhere in Thailand.  I swear it's a conspiracy between the soup and the soup bowl makers - like the hotdog and hotdog bun makers in the US.

Towards the bottom you can only get half a ladle.

The Hogarth

Okay, just got back from a trip to England.  Mostly work, but on the way back I met Nuch, who happened to be in London with Thai Air.   We didn't have a full day, as I arrived in London on Friday evening, and our flight to Bangkok left Saturday evening, but we made the best of it.  Saturday morning, we took a bus towards London to have some British pies and watch some football (soccer).

Our bus to London only made it to Teddington.  I've no idea where that is, but that's where we got off, and across the street was a pub with a British-sounding name, so that's where we ate.

Well, they didn't have any a Beef and Ale pie with a light pastry top, but they did have stone-baked pizza and nachos, and some good FA Cup football that ended in a shoot out. 

Here we are on the way home - looking up the street.

and down the street.

  

so, that was our half day in London.

Ins And Outs Of Thailand

Below are lines of passengers waiting to go through immigration at Suvarnabhumi Airport.  It took nearly an hour to get through, and I almost missed my flight.  In fact, I had to do my best OJ Simpson impersonation to get there just before the plane left the gate.

Apparently, there was an unexpected mass exodus from Thailand because only half of the immigration kiosks were operating.

Coming back was worse.  Unlike the Visa advertisement, this line was "go"-ing nowhere.  This picture was taken while still in the terminal.

Once again, the immigration kiosks were only half-full.  You have to wonder if the immigration officials ever thought of checking the flight schedules.

Outlook - Busy

This is what was waiting for me after one week in the UK. 

If you can't see, my Outlook is in the process of downloading 800 emails.

Language Of Love

Being the romantic guy that I am, I bought  Nuch a Valentine's Day teddy bear that smells like cotton candy at the airport on my way back from Singapore.

While she unwrapped it from the plastic bag, I put on a song by Pi Bang.  Pi Bang is the Thai version of an alternative or underground musician, and it was an older song, so I thought Nuch would be impressed with my knowledge of Thailand's musical, sub-culture.

After the first couple verses, Nuch asked why I had chosen this song.  She was obviously surprised, and I figured my 2 years with the Peace Corps and intimate knowledge of all things Thai were paying off. 

The first line of the chorus was "Kob Gan, Mai Dai".  I had listened to this song a hundred times before during my drives between Korat and Bangkok and had always liked it's slow, deep rhythm and Pi Bang's passionate baritone.  Yet, somehow, it was not until this moment that I realized that he was telling his girlfriend "Kob Gan, Mai Dai", or simply put ....

"We need to break up"

.... have you ever seen a teddy bear that smells like cotton candy?